Previously: 40 Years in Beer (Book II), Part 64: The 2,301 day McOldenberg Brewmall 1990s vigil.
Faithful “40 Years” readers will recall my first-ever visit to Bamberg, Germany in 1991 alongside cousin and mentor Donald Barry. Think of it as a student-professor, Boswell-and-Johnson reprise with amazing beer.
During subsequently journeys I’ve spent as much time in Bamberg as anywhere in Europe apart from those longer-term gigs in East Germany and Slovakia, but it remains that there was a time when my love for this city and its beer culture was new.
Early explorations of Bamberg made a deep and lasting impression on me. Of these the 1996 visit tops the chart by virtue of a single, earth-shattering revelation: Yes, it was possible to experience the city’s nine breweries on foot in a single day (with an asterisk), enjoying at least one half-liter of beer at each, and live to tell the tale, if groggily.
Thus the Smoky Treats brewery crawl of Bamberg unspooled successfully, with a resumption of beer drinking before noon the following day. I cannot in good conscience recommend such a tourist regimen to anyone, although it worked well enough for me. In my essay’s original 1996 configuration, written for publication in the F.O.S.S.I.L.S. Travel Dog, I began with words from Herr Trum, owner of the Brauerei Heller-Trum.
“We don’t try to make a beer for everyone. You like it — or you don’t.”
This statement did not emanate from current owner Matthias Trum, but rather from his father, as quoted by Michael Jackson in the Beer Companion. I was to meet Matthias for the first time in 1997, serendipitously, owing to a transcription error at Schlenkerla’s importer, reminding us that while organization and efficiency are wonderful, it’s always good to be just plain lucky.
I’ve used my 1996 essay as the basis for a comprehensive rewrite, so here’s the story of “Smoky Treats.”
The Bavarian brewing mecca of Bamberg is a city of 79,000 people (2022 est.) located in the historic German region of Franconia. A high speed rail line constructed during the early 2000s has cut the train time to Munich to a mere two hours and fifteen minutes; it used to be...Read more
